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Edited by: Tension and suspense are powerful emotional experiences that occur in a wide variety
Petri Laukka, Stockholm University, of contexts (e.g., in music, film, literature, and everyday life). The omnipresence of
Sweden
tension and suspense suggests that they build on very basic cognitive and affective
Reviewed by:
Elvira Brattico, University of Helsinki,
mechanisms. However, the psychological underpinnings of tension experiences remain
Finland largely unexplained, and tension and suspense are rarely discussed from a general, domain-
Eric C. Porges, University of Florida, independent perspective. In this paper, we argue that tension experiences in different
USA contexts (e.g., musical tension or suspense in a movie) build on the same underlying
Marcos Nadal, University of Vienna,
Austria
psychological processes. We discuss key components of tension experiences and propose
*Correspondence:
a domain-independent model of tension and suspense. According to this model, tension
Moritz Lehne, Languages of Emotion experiences originate from states of conflict, instability, dissonance, or uncertainty that
Research Center, Freie Universität trigger predictive processes directed at future events of emotional significance. We also
Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, discuss possible neural mechanisms underlying tension and suspense.The model provides
14195 Berlin, Germany
e-mail: mlehne@uos.de
a theoretical framework that can inform future empirical research on tension phenomena.
Keywords: tension, suspense, emotion, prediction, music, film, literature
seemingly different tension and suspense experiences encountered human cognition (Gregory, 1980; Dennett, 1996) and brain func-
in contexts such as music, film, literature, or everyday life build on tioning (Bar, 2007; Bubic et al., 2010; Friston, 2010; Arnal and
the same underlying psychological processes. Giraud, 2012; Clark, 2013), and they may also play a central role
Before examining tension phenomena in more detail, a few in emotion. Being related to both predictive processes and emo-
words about the relation between tension and arousal seem appro- tion, tension phenomena could provide the “missing link” that
priate. Although tension and arousal appear to be closely related, may help to bridge the gap between the “cold” cognitive pro-
we consider tension phenomena to be a sub-class of states associ- cesses of prediction on the one hand and the “hot” processes of
ated with arousal: Whereas a psychological state of high tension is emotion on the other hand, thus integrating predictive processes
always accompanied by high arousal, a state of high arousal is not into a general theory of human affect. In this context, study-
necessarily one of high tension or suspense (for example, surprise ing the brain mechanisms underlying tension experiences from
is associated with a high level of arousal but not necessarily a high the perspective of the theory of predictive coding (Friston, 2010)
level of tension; see also the comparison of tension and surprise seems particularly promising (see Neural Correlates of Tension
in the Section “Expectation, Prediction, Anticipation”). Further- and Suspense).
more, unlike arousal, which is primarily a physiological state (3) Aesthetic emotions. Ever since Fechner (1876), aesthetic
that is difficult to study from a purely psychological perspective, emotions have attracted the curiosity of psychologists, and recent
tension, and suspense lend themselves better to a psychological years have seen a growing interest in the psychology and neuro-
investigation like the one described here. science of aesthetic perception and emotional experience (Zeki,
1999; Leder et al., 2004; Silvia, 2005; Jacobsen, 2006; Di Dio
and Gallese, 2009; Fitch et al., 2009; Brattico et al., 2013; Juslin,
TENSION AND SUSPENSE AND THEIR RELEVANCE FOR
2013; Nadal and Skov, 2013). However, aesthetic emotions (e.g.,
EMOTION RESEARCH
emotions evoked in artistic contexts such as music, painting, lit-
What exactly do we mean by tension? And what can psychologi-
erature, etc.) remain rather mysterious. Assuming that emotions
cal research of emotion gain from studying tension phenomena?
are generally elicited by events that have some intrinsic signifi-
First, we define tension and suspense3 as affective states that (a)
cance to the concerns of the individual or, in biological terms,
are associated with conflict, dissonance, instability, or uncertainty,
some kind of survival value, emotional responses to abstract, or
(b) create a yearning for resolution, (c) concern events of potential
fictitious events or features of artworks seem paradoxical (but
emotional significance, and (d) build on future-directed processes
see Darwin, 1871; Dutton, 2009; Menninghaus, 2011, for biolog-
of expectation, anticipation, and prediction (the Section “Key
ical accounts of aesthetic perception and emotion). Apart from
Components of Tension and Suspense Experiences” discusses the
other factors contributing to aesthetic experiences (e.g., stimulus
different aspects of tension experiences in detail).
complexity, symmetry, or familiarity), patterns of tension and res-
Studying tension phenomena can advance psychological emo-
olution appear to be a key mediator of emotional responses to art
tion research by providing new insights into the following areas in
forms such as music, literature, or film (cf. Lehne and Koelsch,
particular:
in press). A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying
(1) Time-varying aspects of emotion. Emotions are rarely static
tension experiences can therefore shed light on the mystery of
states and their dynamic, time-varying nature is one of their
aesthetic emotions evoked by works of art.
defining features (Scherer, 2005). However, most experimental
emotion research focuses on static aspects during brief emotional
MEASURING TENSION
episodes (using experimental stimuli that remain relatively con-
Experiences of tension are accessible to empirical research by
stant over time, e.g., affective pictures, facial expressions, words,
means of subjective rating experiments in which participants
etc.). Because tension phenomena usually require time to unfold
give some form of rating reflecting the degree of tension or sus-
and thus predominantly reflect time-dependent aspects of affective
pense experienced during exposure to an experimental stimulus
experience, studying these phenomena can help to shift the focus
(e.g., a piece of music or a literary text). Tension ratings can
of psychological emotion research to the more dynamic aspects of
be acquired continuously over the whole course of the stim-
emotion that are underrepresented in current research.
ulus or they can be collected in a discrete manner at specific
(2) The relation of emotion and processes of prediction. Ten-
time points of the stimulus (see Figure 1 for two examples). To
sion and suspense are closely related to processes of prediction
acquire continuous tension ratings, various kinds of interfaces
(see the Section “Expectation, Prediction, Anticipation”). These
have been used including spring-loaded tongs (Nielsen, 1983), dial
predictive processes have been proposed as a basic principle of
interfaces (Madsen and Fredrickson, 1993), or real or virtual slid-
ers (Krumhansl, 1996; Vines et al., 2006; Farbood, 2012; Lehne
3 Notice that, despite being often used interchangeably, the terms tension and sus-
et al., 2013a). However, experiments probing tension experiences
pense sometimes denote slightly different experiences. Whereas suspense usually in music (Madsen and Fredrickson, 1993; Lehne, unpublished
involves the anticipation of two clearly opposed outcomes (e.g., the heroine of a
movie killing the villain as opposed to the villain killing the heroine), the term data) indicate that different interfaces yield similar results. More-
“tension” often denotes a more diffuse state of anticipation, in which anticipated over, these tension ratings appear to be relatively consistent across
events are less specific. However, there is no clear-cut boundary between the two and within participants (Krumhansl, 1996; Fredrickson, 1997,
concepts, because anticipated events can be situated on a continuum ranging from
2000).
very unspecific (expecting “something” to happen) to very specific. Throughout
the article, we will try to show that both concepts build on the same underlying For discrete measures of tension experiences, the stimulus is
psychological principles. usually interrupted several times (unless it is very short) and
experienced tension than in-key chords (Lerdahl and Krumhansl, or music), they are constantly evaluated against a background
2007). of predictions that is continuously updated during the temporal
Similar to the biological homeostasis of an organism (i.e., its evolution of events. Anticipated events of emotional significance
tendency to maintain a stable physiological state in a changing (see Emotional Significance of Anticipated Events) can then gen-
environment), tension experiences thus appear to build on a kind erate experiences of tension or suspense. The resulting tension
of “psychological homeostasis”—an urge to resolve psychologi- experiences are closely related to the emotions of hope and fear
cal conflicts and dissonances and strive toward stable states of (cf. the concept of Prospect emotions described in Ortony et al.,
equilibrium. This idea is related to Festinger’s theory of cognitive 1988): anticipated events with positive valence elicit emotions
dissonance according to which humans try to resolve psychologi- of hope, whereas negative events create fear (or anxiety if the
cal dissonances to achieve “consonant” cognitive states (Festinger, anticipated events are more diffuse and not clearly specified). In
1957; Cooper, 2007). typical tension experiences, both emotions can co-occur because
However, in the context of tension and suspense, the general often both positive and negative outcomes are possible. In fact,
preference for stable states does not mean that tension experiences the degree of experienced tension appears to be directly related
are always associated with negative emotion (such as anxiety), nor to the range of anticipated events and their emotional valence.
that stable states of equilibrium are always favored over states of That is, the experience of tension is more intense if the range
tension. To the contrary, events associated with tension may be of anticipated outcomes varies from highly positive to highly
perceived as positive because they promise excitement and intense negative events, as opposed to, for example, slightly positive to
emotional experiences that are usually not experienced in states neutral events (see Toward a Psychological Model of Tension and
of constant equilibrium. This is especially true in contexts such Suspense).
as music, film, or literature in which seemingly negative tension The formation of predictions requires explicit or implicit
experiences can be experienced as positive and rewarding because knowledge such as learned concepts, categories, schemata, or
they usually lack any negative real-life implications (cf. Levinson, scripts (Bartlett, 1932; Rosch et al., 1976; Schank and Abelson,
1997). Moreover, the state achieved after having gone through 1977; Rumelhart, 1980). Furthermore, both long-term and short-
an experience of tension may be preferable to the one before the term knowledge are relevant for the formation of predictions.
tension experience, thus sometimes justifying the deliberate expo- Predictive processes in music, for example, build on long-term
sure to negative tension experiences. For example, tension is often knowledge that is acquired over years of exposure to a musical
associated with situations in which an individual’s model of the system (e.g., Western tonal music), as well as short-term knowl-
world (i.e., previous knowledge, and expectations) is challenged, edge that is acquired during the exposure to a specific music
providing an environment for learning in which the model of the piece (Pearce and Wiggins, 2012; Rohrmeier and Koelsch, 2012;
world is expanded. Tillmann et al., 2014). Musical events generating strong expecta-
tions for upcoming events are then potential triggers of tension.
UNCERTAINTY Notably, these expectations need not necessarily be fulfilled but
Another important building block of tension experiences is uncer- can be violated, thus generating surprise. Tension and surprise
tainty (although its exact role in mediating tension and suspense thus can be complementary if a sequence ends with a surprising
is a matter of debate, see the Section “The Paradox of Suspense”). event (e.g., a joke). This is in accordance with Huron who states
Obvious instances of uncertainty triggering experiences of ten- that “tension is almost the exact opposite of surprise” because
sion are real life examples in which anticipated future events with “surprise happens after events; tension happens before events”
uncertain but potentially highly significant outcomes can create (Huron, 2006, p. 307). However, if a surprising event does not ter-
strong tension experiences (e.g., a medical diagnosis, an impor- minate the sequence (e.g., a deceptive cadence in a musical piece),
tant job interview, a rendezvous, etc.). Similarly, in narrative plots but rather delays the final event of the sequence, the surprising
such as novels or movies, uncertainty about the unfolding of events event might even further increase tension (however, this assump-
of the plot creates suspense. The uncertainty associated with ten- tion remains to be clarified by empirical research). The build-up,
sion experiences—whether in real life or in narrative plots—often fulfillment, and violation of listeners’ expectations has been iden-
takes the form of an implicit or explicit question (e.g., the clas- tified as an important mechanism for the evocation of emotions in
sic “Whodunit?” in a detective story), triggering an experience of music (Juslin and Västfjäll, 2008; Vuust and Frith, 2008; Koelsch,
tension that resolves when an answer to the question is provided. 2012).
Uncertainty can take on different forms, for example, there can be During the formation of predictions, the probability of
uncertainty about what will happen, how it will happen, when it anticipated events also plays an important role and shapes the
will happen, or if it will happen. resulting experience of tension or suspense. However, the exact
relation between anticipated probabilities of future events and
EXPECTATION, PREDICTION, ANTICIPATION
experienced tension remains largely unclear (but for the special
A key component underlying tension and suspense experiences are
future-directed processes of expectation, prediction, and anticipa-
tion4 . As events unfold in time (e.g., in real life, fictional worlds, event to happen), whereas the terms “expectancy” and “anticipation” are used to
denote predictive processes that are more diffuse and less specific. “Prediction” is
4 Although often used interchangeably, there are subtle conceptual differences used to refer to all processes directed at future events, whether specific or unspecific
between expectation, expectancy, prediction, and anticipation. We use the term (for accounts on terminology, see also Bubic et al., 2010; Rohrmeier and Koelsch,
“expectation” to refer to distinct instances of future events (i.e., expecting a specific 2012).
case of narrative plots and film suspense, see Comisky and Bryant, of some suspense experiences because repeated exposures may
1982; Gerrig and Bernardo, 1994; Carroll, 1996a). decrease the level of felt suspense but not that of perceived
Importantly, by building on implicit knowledge, predictions suspense.
can be established automatically (i.e., in the absence of voli- With regard to music, empirical evidence suggests that unex-
tion or awareness). In music, for example, statistical regularities pected musical events are processed pre-attentively and automati-
can be acquired implicitly through exposure to a musical system cally with regard to their music-syntactic function (Koelsch et al.,
(Rohrmeier and Rebuschat, 2012), and musical expectancy viola- 2002). Due to this automatic processing, a musical event can
tions are processed based on such implicit knowledge even in the be experienced as music-syntactically unexpected, despite famil-
absence of attention (Koelsch et al., 2002). iarity with the piece (which should render all musical events
expected). This would account for the experience of musical
THE PARADOX OF SUSPENSE tension in the absence of uncertainty (see also the distinc-
If tension experiences build on an urge for uncertainty reduc- tion between schematic and veridical expectations in music,
tion and processes of expectation, prediction, and anticipation, Bharucha, 1994).
this raises the question as to how tension can be experienced over Despite the resilience of tension experiences over repeated
repeated exposures to a stimulus. Assuming that uncertainty is exposures to some stimuli, we think that in most cases the
resolved after the first exposure, subsequent exposures should reduction of uncertainty, ceteris paribus, leads to a considerable
have lost their power to create tension or suspense. However, decrease of tension or suspense. Watching a recording of the soc-
this does not always appear to be the case, and in some con- cer World Cup finals is clearly less suspenseful when knowing
texts, tension experiences seem to be resistant against the loss the end result of the game, and a suspenseful movie is rarely
of uncertainty associated with repeated exposures. A piece of watched twice in close succession, indicating that parts of the
music can be listened to hundreds of times while still convey- suspense experience do get lost after repeated exposure. Never-
ing feelings of tension and resolution, and—at least according theless, the paradox of suspense indicates that the exact role of
to some authors (see Gerrig, 1989; Carroll, 1996b)—the narra- uncertainty in creating experiences of tension and suspense is
tive plots of novels or movies can be experienced as suspenseful still not fully understood and remains to be investigated more
even in the absence of uncertainty after several readings or view- closely.
ings. Moreover, music pieces, novels, or movies often conform
to genre-specific standards that make it possible to predict out- EMOTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ANTICIPATED EVENTS
comes with high accuracy (in a typical Hollywood movie, the Importantly, anticipated events need to be relevant to the con-
“good guys” usually win, a Beethoven sonata will end on a con- cerns of the individual, i.e., they have to have some emotional
sonant stable chord, etc.), thus putting the role of uncertainty significance, in order to generate tension or suspense. Apart from
as a mediator of tension into question. This apparent contra- expecting specific events to happen, someone experiencing ten-
diction known as the paradox of suspense has spurred much sion or suspense usually also wants a specific event to happen
discussion, and conflicting accounts have been put forward as (or not to happen; cf. Anz, 1998). In fact, the amount of ten-
possible solutions5 . While some authors question the possibil- sion experienced appears to depend directly on the significance
ity of experiencing suspense in the absence of uncertainty (Yanal, or desirability of anticipated events. Event outcomes promising
1996), others have argued that the experience of suspense after great reward (e.g., winning the lottery) or portending great pain
repeated exposure to a narrative plot derives from the sympa- or suffering (e.g., a medical diagnosis) can elicit strong experi-
thy with the characters (who themselves are uncertain about ences of tension whereas events that are largely irrelevant to the
future events, Skulsky, 1980), or that immersing into a suspense- concerns of the individual usually fail to create tension or sus-
ful story for repeated times involves a game of make-believe, in pense. Of course, the emotional significance of events can differ
which a kind of feigned uncertainty, not actual uncertainty, causes largely between individuals. The idea that tension experiences
the experience of suspense (Walton, 1978). A related idea was depend on the significance of anticipated events is in accordance
proposed by Gerrig (1989) who postulated that external events with cognitive theories of emotions, according to which emo-
automatically are processed with the “expectation of uniqueness,” tions result from events being evaluated in relation to concerns
i.e., they are perceived as if they have never been encountered (for an overview of cognitive approaches to emotion, see Oat-
before. ley and Johnson-Laird, 2014). It also concurs with Reisenzein’s
Furthermore, although there may be certainty about what (2009) computational belief-desire theory of emotion, which
will happen after repeated exposure to, for example, a suspense- states that emotions depend on an individual’s beliefs and desires
ful movie, viewers may not recall exactly when certain events (Reisenzein, 2009).
happen, and these temporal uncertainties may be the main fac- Whereas the relevance of an event’s emotional significance
tor triggering suspense experiences after repeated exposure to a is relatively obvious for most real life examples of tension (job
stimulus. Distinguishing between felt and perceived tension or sus- interviews, exams, etc.), this is not the case for the tension
pense (see Measuring Tension) may also account for the resilience experiences created by many forms of media entertainment: the
fictitious events of a movie or a novel, or the musical events of
5 Note that for most real life tension experiences (i.e., the ones not pertaining to a Beethoven symphony appear to lack any direct relevance to
narrative plots or music), the paradox of suspense is less relevant, because the our lives, yet they can trigger powerful experiences of tension.
impossibility of time travel usually impedes the repeated exposure to real life events. Nevertheless, even for fictitious events of a narrative plot, it is
important that they become significant to the reader or viewer, a scarcity of empirical research investigating the relation between
and many writers or movie directors go through great lengths to deferment of the resolution and experienced tension. Investigating
make audiences care about the events of the plot (e.g., by por- the temporal aspects of tension experiences more closely would
traying the protagonist as likable, addressing moral values of the substantially contribute to a better understanding of tension and
reader, etc.). This can result in processes of identification and suspense (see Future Directions).
empathy with characters of the plot that could account for the
emotional responses evoked by narrative plots (cf. Hogan, 2010; TENSION AND EMOTION
Oatley, 2012). We already mentioned the relation between tension experiences
and emotions of fear and hope (i.e., fear of an undesirable outcome
LACK OF CONTROL and hope for a desired outcome). Because tension experiences
Apart from the factors discussed above, a lack of control, i.e., an are directed at future events of emotional significance, tension
inability to influence the course of events, often contributes to often precedes other emotions such as joy, pleasure, sadness, or
experiences of tension. This lack of control is brought about by disappointment and can thus be conceived of as a diffuse affec-
a temporal distance between the initiating event triggering the tive antecedent to more discrete emotional reactions. Generally,
tension experience and the event that resolves the tension. Dur- the more divergent the emotional valence of anticipated events is,
ing the time interval between these two events, there is usually the more diffuse and unspecific the associated tension experience
not much that can be done except for waiting for the tension tends to be. For example, in situations, in which both highly pos-
to resolve (in the best case the time of resolution can be influ- itive or negative outcomes are possible (e.g., betting a thousand
enced). This means that during the actual tension experience dollars on the result of a coin flip), tension experiences may have
any action tendencies are rendered largely ineffective because the neither a clear positive nor negative valence (although in this spe-
course of events cannot be changed, and this may induce a feeling cific coin flip example, tension is probably experienced as more
of helplessness that can add to the experience of tension. This, of negative due to people’s tendency for loss aversion, cf. Kahne-
course, does not mean that tension experiences are devoid of action man and Tversky, 1984). On the other hand, when the affective
tendencies—to the contrary, tension experiences can evoke strong valence of possible outcomes is negative and the best outcome is
impulses to act and these impulses may prepare the organism just a preservation of the status quo, associated tension experi-
for adequate behavioral responses in the moment when tension ences also tend to be negative (causing anxiety or stress), whereas
resolves. if a positive outcome is anticipated and the worst outcome is a
The inability to influence events often becomes apparent in preservation of a neutral status quo the tension experience tends
suspenseful movie scenes that build on a disparity between the to be positive. The emotional valence of tension experiences is
knowledge of a character of the movie and the knowledge of the therefore often defined by the emotional valence of the anticipated
viewer (e.g., the viewer may be made aware that the protagonist resolution. Contrary to that, one may argue that tension experi-
is in huge danger while the protagonist is completely oblivious of ences are largely associated with negative emotion, and that people
this danger). The resulting lack of control over the situation may deliberately expose themselves to tension experiences only for the
contribute to feelings of tension and suspense and can create strong sake of experiencing the positive resolution of tension. Accounts
action tendencies (viewers, for example, may have the strong urge such as Berlyne’s (1960) arousal-jag theory or Zillmann’s (1980)
to utter warnings to the protagonist, despite knowing that this is excitation-transfer paradigm, for example, assume that the inten-
pointless). sity of the pleasure experienced during the resolution depends
on the intensity of the (negative) tension experienced prior to
TEMPORAL ASPECTS the resolution. However, even in the absence of a positive reso-
Tension experiences can be observed at different temporal levels. lution, tension experiences can be enjoyed, particularly in forms
They can span large time intervals encompassing, for example, of media entertainment such as film or literature that often lack
the complete plot of a novel but they can also be observed at a positive resolution (e.g., tragedies, some horror movies, etc.).
smaller, microstructural levels. In a written text, for example, The emotional intensity or “thrill” of the tension experience may
a single sentence which is very long, and in which subject and thus be appreciated for its own sake, and the fictitious events of
verb are separated by various subordinate clauses or parenthetical narrative plots provide an opportunity to experience intense emo-
statements (e.g., by making ample use of relative clauses, brackets, tions associated with situations not commonly encountered in
dashes, etc.), thus taxing the working memory load of the reader— everyday life and without any (potentially negative) real life con-
longer sentences usually require more elements to be kept active in sequences (cf. the “pleasure of being moved” discussed in Hanich
memory—and delaying syntactic integration necessary for under- et al., 2014).
standing the sentence, can create tension. The different temporal In its most diffuse form, tension can just arise from the
levels (such as sentences, scenes, and entire plots) can interact, expectancy that “something” significant will happen. Depend-
thus potentially amplifying the tension experience. ing on what then actually happens, tension resolves into positive
The previous example also illustrates that the temporal distance or negative emotions. If something completely unexpected hap-
between the initiating event creating the tension and the moment pens, this can lead to surprise or amusement, e.g., when expecting
in which tension resolves influences the tension experience. It has something significant to happen that then resolves into some-
been proposed that delaying the resolution of the tension inten- thing trivial (cf. the false-alarm-theory of humor and laughter;
sifies the tension experience (de Wied, 1995), however, there is Ramachandran, 1998).
It also seems worthwhile to examine the relation of tension smaller. It remains to be investigated how exactly the disper-
experiences and flow (Csíkszentmihályi, 1990)—the state of being sion of the affective values of anticipated events affects the
completely absorbed in an activity (e.g., reading, watching a tension experience (e.g., whether tension is affected more by
movie, listening to or performing music, sports, etc.). Tension and the range of affective values or by their variance). Further-
suspense, like flow, are associated with strong immersive expe- more, the perceived probabilities of anticipated events influence
riences in which attention is highly focused (it is, for example, the tension experience, and a closer investigation of this effect
remarkable how long, especially in comparison to other stimuli, of perceived probabilities on tension experiences might eventu-
a suspenseful novel or movie can capture one’s attention). A bet- ally lead to a quantitative mathematical model of tension and
ter understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying suspense.
tension and suspense could make it possible to deliberately cre- Note that the most positive or negative event of the outcome
ate these experiences of minimal distraction and highly focused space is often just the maintenance of the status quo whereas
attention associated with flow. the others are more positive or negative events (for example,
tension can be created by a mismatch between a desired state
TOWARD A PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL OF TENSION AND and the actual state of the world). Outcomes that have a neg-
SUSPENSE ative affective value are associated with fear whereas positive
Figure 2 shows a model of tension and suspense based on the outcomes can evoke feelings of hope. Initiating and outcome
points discussed in this article. According to this model, experi- events can coincide, i.e., an outcome event can be the initiat-
ences of tension originate from the perception of an initiating ing event of a new tension process, thus creating a succession
event that is associated with conflict, instability, dissonance, of different tension experiences that give rise to a dynamic flow
or uncertainty which triggers future-directed processes of pre- of tension and resolution (e.g., in a piece of music or in a
diction, expectation and anticipation (modulated by previous movie).
knowledge, situational factors, or personality, see below). These Importantly, the anticipated events of the outcome space as
predictive processes create a space of possible outcome events well as their affective values and perceived probabilities can largely
(note that these anticipated outcome events can be conscious or differ between (and within) individuals because the predictive
unconscious, and more or less specific). A divergence between processes generating the outcome space depend on factors such
the affective values of anticipated events (i.e., their desirabil- as previous knowledge, personal values, mood, the context, in
ity) then results in an experience of tension. More specifically, which events occur, attention, or personality (e.g., whether some-
we propose that the intensity of tension experiences increases one generally has a more optimistic or pessimistic outlook on the
as the variability of the affective values of anticipated out- future).
comes increases. That is, anticipated events whose affective values
are highly variable (e.g., ranging from very positive to very NEURAL CORRELATES OF TENSION AND SUSPENSE
negative events) are associated with higher degrees of experi- Investigating tension phenomena from a neuroscientific perspec-
enced tension than events whose range of affective values is tive can provide insights into general mechanisms of human
FIGURE 2 | Tension model. The perception of an initiating event regard to their affective values/desirability. A divergence between the
associated with conflict, dissonance, instability, or uncertainty triggers affective values of anticipated outcomes (i.e., a differing desirability of
future-directed processes of expectation, anticipation, and prediction outcome events) leads to the subjective experience of tension (with
(depending on previous knowledge, context, and personality factors) positive outcomes being associated with hope and negative outcomes
generating a space of anticipated outcome events that vary with with fear).
brain functioning, in particular the ones associated with emo- an integration of predictive processes, emotion, and underly-
tion and predictive processing. Vice versa, neuroscientific findings ing brain processes has recently been proposed by Gebauer et al.
can inform psychological theories of tension. (2012), who relate music-evoked emotions to so-called “pleasure
First empirical research investigating brain processes underlying cycles” which are distinguished by different phases of wanting,
the experience of tension in music indicates that musical tension liking, and learning (for details, see Georgiadis and Kringelbach,
is associated with neural activity in the lateral orbitofrontal cor- 2012; Kringelbach et al., 2012) and which depend on listeners’
tex, and that increases in experienced tension (in comparison with expectations and their fulfillment or violation. The different
tension decreases) are related to activity in the (superficial) amyg- phases of these pleasure cycles are put into relation with neu-
dala (Lehne et al., 2013b). This is consistent with studies showing ronal processes of the dopaminergic reward system representing
that harmonic expectancy violations in music (which are highly expectations and prediction errors according to the theory of pre-
relevant to experiences of tension, see Expectation, Prediction, dictive coding. Art forms such as music, film, or literature thus
Anticipation) also activate the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (Koelsch appear to be capable of evoking activity within these brain cir-
et al., 2005; Tillmann et al., 2006) and the amygdala (Koelsch et al., cuits associated with prediction and reward. Therefore, studying
2008). In addition, other music studies indicate that expectation the underlying brain mechanisms more closely would advance
processes are related to brain areas in the basal ganglia associated our understanding of the aesthetic emotions evoked by works
with reward processing, particularly the striatum (Salimpoor et al., of art.
2011; Seger et al., 2013). Electroencephalography (EEG) studies investigating tension
Investigating immersion in reading (i.e., the feeling of “get- and suspense are scarce. However, event-related potentials such
ting lost” in a text), which is closely related to suspense, a study as the P300 and the contingent negative variation (CNV) which
by Hsu et al. (2014) indicates that immersion during emotional have been implicated in processes of anticipation (Verleger et al.,
text passages is associated with activation of the mid-cingulate 1994; Goldstein et al., 2006; Pfabigan et al., 2014) may play a role
cortex, possibly reflecting empathic processes with protagonists in tension and suspense experiences.
of the plot. Further evidence from a study investigating sus- Tension experiences also share many of the components that
pense during reading suggests that the experience of suspense are relevant to the perception of risk (e.g., in decision-making)
recruits brain areas related to theory-of-mind processing such as such as uncertainty, predictive processing, and emotion. Brain
the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the temporo-parietal regions associated with tension experiences may therefore over-
junction (TPJ) as well as areas in the premotor cortex (Lehne lap with regions that have been implicated in risk processing such
et al., submitted). Such premotor cortex activations have been as the anterior insula or dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal
implicated with action and event prediction (Schubotz, 2007), cortex (Mohr et al., 2010). The same is true for brain regions asso-
underlining the connection between experiences of suspense ciated with anticipatory processes such as the dorsal striatum (cf.
and predictive processes. With regard to these predictive pro- Salimpoor et al., 2011), which have mostly been studied in the con-
cesses, the connection of psychological tension theories with text of reward processing (Schultz et al., 1997; O’Doherty, 2004;
Bayesian accounts of brain functioning such as predictive cod- Wise, 2004; Knutson and Cooper, 2005).
ing and the free energy principle (Friston and Kiebel, 2009; Apart from providing insights into the neural mechanisms
Friston, 2010) may prove useful. According to predictive cod- underlying tension experiences, neuroscientific methods may also
ing theories, perception, action, and learning are essentially open new perspectives for objectively quantifying the amount
based on the minimization of prediction errors, surprise, and of tension or suspense evoked by an experimental stimulus
uncertainty, i.e., it is assumed that the brain constantly gen- (e.g., a movie excerpt, a piece of music, etc.). Studies by
erates predictions at different levels of the processing hierarchy Hasson et al. (2010) have shown that the intersubject synchro-
that are compared with input from lower levels of the hierarchy nization of cortical activity, measuring to which degree brain
(e.g., sensory input). If there is a mismatch between (top–down) activity correlates between different individuals, varies between
predictions and (bottom–up) input, this results in a prediction different kinds of audiovisual stimuli, with the highest synchro-
error. If such a prediction error occurs, predictions are updated nization observed for suspenseful movies (Hitchcock’s “Bang!
or behavior is changed in such a way that predictions are ful- You’re dead” or Leone’s “The good, the bad and the ugly”).
filled, thus minimizing future prediction errors, surprise, and Similarly, Nummenmaa et al. (2012) have shown that emotional
uncertainty. Although these predictive processes most likely also movie scenes are associated with increased intersubject correla-
have an emotional component, predictive coding and emotion tions of brain activity. The intersubject synchronization of brain
are only beginning to be integrated into a common theoreti- activity could therefore possibly serve as an indicator of how
cal framework (Joffily and Coricelli, 2013). As discussed above, much suspense a stimulus evokes on average over a group of
tension and suspense are closely connected with processes of participants.
expectation and anticipation and thus appear to rely on very
basic brain mechanisms associated with predictive processing. At FUTURE DIRECTIONS
the same time, tension phenomena can evoke intense emotional The model proposed in this article should be regarded as a first step
responses. Studying neural correlates of tension and suspense toward a psychological theory of tension and suspense. It provides
would therefore be useful when developing a theory of human a starting point from which experimental hypotheses can be gen-
brain function integrating cognitive processes of prediction with erated and tested in empirical studies, which may then motivate
affective emotional processes. For the special case of music, further refinements of the model. In particular, future research is
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